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Maple Encounter / Maple AJs /Other Maple Gibsons

Rambler

By Rambler
in Gibson Acoustic

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jt

jt

Posted
Posted
jt- the figuring on that sj is breathtakingly gorgeous. looks like a tiger.

 

Thanks! That's European maple that was cut 100 years before Kim built my guitar. A huge part of the visuals are due to Kim's secret varnish formula.

 

Here's the front:

 

184_std.jpg

185_std.jpg

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fp

fp

Posted
Posted

Red, great looking AJ, thanks for the pictures.

I noticed the heel isn't the rounded Gibson heel but more typical of a vintage J35.

Everyone else here who posted pics of your maple guitars they all look great !

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Red 333

Red 333

Posted
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Red' date=' great looking AJ, thanks for the pictures.

I noticed the heel isn't the rounded Gibson heel but more typical of a vintage J35.

Everyone else here who posted pics of your maple guitars they all look great ![/quote']

 

It has a French heel and a very pronounced V neck.

 

The headstock is tapered (thinner at the end than where it meets the neck, when you look at it sideways), which is something characteristic of Gibsons until about 1953. My regular AJ's headstock is like that, as well (and my Epiphone Masterbilts'!), though my other Gibson (including a J45 TV and SJ TV) have uniformily thick headstocks, like a post-1953.

 

Glad you liked the pictures.

 

Red 333

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Guth

Guth

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jk,

 

I've played a number of J-185s over the years. While I've never found one that I've wanted to pull the trigger on (I've yet to find one with quite enough "life" to it), I've typically found the J-185 to be a nice fit for my playing style. I'm guessing that the J-185 would work better for your playing than the J-45/AJ.

 

Bear in mind a few things: In general, I'm very particular about my guitars. I'll play dozens of examples of a model to find one that meets my own tonal requirements. The J-185s that I've played have been pretty darn good, just not good enough to suck the money out my wallet. I'm also making some assumptions here based on your posts on this forum and the music/artists that you seem to enjoy and replicate.

 

Based on my experiences, when it comes to fingerpicking the blues, I get much more excited when I see a maple J-185 hanging on the wall than I do when I see a maple dreadnaught. As far as generalities go: to my ear, the J-185 isn't as versatile as a Mahogany J-45 or a Rosewood AJ, but as far as fingerpicking the blues goes, I feel that the J-185 is a very nice choice.

 

Bear in mind that I really liked the one example of the Woody Guthrie 000 that I played as well, so please filter my comments appropriately.

 

All the best,

Guth

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jt

jt

Posted
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JT's custom built vine is sweet too.

 

Thanks! Kim does all of his inlay by hand. The process was really fun. I drew Kim a big "S" and suggested placement between the 6th and 14th frets on the fretboard. He submitted drawings and I chose one' date=' which he cut a mock-up from paper:

 

[img']http://www.walkerguitars.com/temp/WIP.2006.9/pa061772_std.jpg[/img]

 

Then, he got out the jeweler's tools and inlaid pink, green, and white abalone;

 

jt.fboard_std.jpg

 

And, the finished result;

 

183_std.jpg

 

Alas, Kim's Walker's wait list is now about 9 years.

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jt

jt

Posted
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Cool photo-essay' date=' jt. Great quality pix, too--the color is sumptuous. Thanks for sharing.[/quote']

 

Thanks! Here is another example of Kim's inlay work (but, alas, this guitar is not mine):

 

pc101949_std.jpg

fingerboard%20extention.2_std.jpg

rosette.2_std.jpg

pc102010_std.jpg

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Rambler

Rambler

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Thanks everyone so far for your comments and pics! One thing I liked about that G37 that started this whole thread was the quick response. The notes pop out fast, fat a clear. Different from hogs, where (imho) there seems to be ever so slight a delay before the notes bloom. But they die down quick, so I wasnt getting a lot of extraneous sound. An issue with my Martin --not to mention Rosewood guitars.

 

Guth, you raised an good point re the versatility of maple guitars. Because I havent had the option of owning a lot of instruments, Ive been shy of maple in the past. Need to sample some more but my ear wants to hear that sound. In the best of all worlds, would like to have a pair of Gibbys-maple J and a hog slope. A pair of Guilds would be better suited to my budget (sigh).

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Jack6849

Jack6849

Posted
Posted

The guitars pictured in this post have been unbelievably beautiful. Fred always has the best quality Gibson tonewoods I've seen, and those inlay pictures from Kim Walker's guitars are truly awesome. (I can understand the reportedly long waiting list there!)

 

Thanks to everyone for the show. I agree that if you have to have just one acoustic, Maple might not be the most versatile choice, but if I had to pick just one of mine, I have an SJ-200 "True Vintage" that would be awfully hard to beat as an all-around player.

 

It's like being asked to pick a favorite among your children. I really couldn't do it... Each of my acoustic guitars occupies a special place in my collection, and my Mahogany "D-18 Authentic 1937" Martin is a totally different animal from my Cocobolo Rosewood "TCOM" Goodall. Each has its own specific role in my music, and each evokes a different tune selection when I'm playing it. That's a great part of the fun of having a choice.

 

Anyway, in the pics on this thread, the beautiful tonewoods and the stunning craftsmanship have been a treat to see. Thanks a lot.

 

Jack6849

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Rambler

Rambler

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What about strings? With the RW guitars, I needed frequent string changes, otherwise they started to sound dull. On my hogs, it hanst seemed to matter so much. I actually prefer older ones on my 000, tones it down a bit. What about maple?

 

btw AJ, this made me smile: "If you met a girl called "Maple" ..you would instantly fall in love with her pure, uncomplicated, intelligent, charm. Better stop there before I get referred to another forum!"

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Rambler

Rambler

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More input. Played two newish maple jumbos today, a Bedell G52 if my memory serves me well, and a Taylor GAS. Like the Guild, they had that fat note /quick response thing going on. A delight to fingerpick -- great presence without extraneous downstream noise. Nice chug strummed. Neither were great, a contemporary sound (could have been punchier) But for getting a Blind Lemon/Blind Blake vibe out of a large guitar. They met me halfway.

 

Now it gets interesting. The shop also had a 43 J45. I ran through a good chunk of my repertoire on it. Fat note, punchy, but a bit of zing on top. Solid but not overwhelming bass. Great feel, too (those 40s necks are to die for in my hands). It had some issues, notably a bulge behind the bridge, so never mind. Good as it was, though, the two maples sounded better in some ways for many of the tunes Im working on, and the 16" jumbo shape was more comfortable to handle. Hands down, the j45 was more versatile, but those jumbos had a great vibe. At this juncture, Im still not sure I could marry a guitar with maple b/s. I could marry with a hog slope but would probably have dreams a about ms maple. Polygamy?

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jt

jt

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Jon,

 

If you're willing to travel south to Connecticut, I've got a couple of maple guitars that you can try. I love maple guitars.

 

There was 1 original maple AJ. I'd love to play it some day. When Kim Walker was running Gruhn's repair shop, he did some repair and restoration work on it (including removing rhinestones from the headstock).

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anzafrank

anzafrank

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Posted
More input. Played two newish maple jumbos today' date=' a Bedell G52 if my memory serves me well, and a Taylor GAS. Like the Guild, they had that fat note /quick response thing going on. A delight to fingerpick -- great presence without extraneous downstream noise. Nice chug strummed. Neither were [i']great[/i], a contemporary sound (could have been punchier) But for getting a Blind Lemon/Blind Blake vibe out of a large guitar. They met me halfway.

 

Now it gets interesting. The shop also had a 43 J45. I ran through a good chunk of my repertoire on it. Fat note, punchy, but a bit of zing on top. Solid but not overwhelming bass. Great feel, too (those 40s necks are to die for in my hands). It had some issues, notably a bulge behind the bridge, so never mind. Good as it was, though, the two maples sounded better in some ways for many of the tunes Im working on, and the 16" jumbo shape was more comfortable to handle. Hands down, the j45 was more versatile, but those jumbos had a great vibe. At this juncture, Im still not sure I could marry a guitar with maple b/s. I could marry with a hog slope but would probably have dreams a about ms maple. Polygamy?

 

I had a 78 Guild F-50 Blond. Very sweet highs, and all & all a very nice guitar that I should never have let go of. It seemed to me to be the highest quality guitar I ever owned. Live and learn, but it's the learning that sucks.

 

Frank

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